Read Novel Full Chapter 99
Chapter 99
What was Concealed
“Also, you are——-“
Just at that moment, it seemed like Ricardo and Leonardo’s eyes met each other.
“Hm?”
“………”
Leonardo showed his usual smirk, and Ricardo seemed to make a bitter face. Francesca thought it to be a bit suspicious meanwhile Leonardo leaned back on his chair to relax once again.
“The assassin search hasn’t really borne any fruit but, I did find some other things.”
Saying that, he brought out something from inside his pocket. Seeing that, Ricardo frowned doubtfully.
“Is that a fountain pen?”
A black pen with golden engravings, it was simple yet elegant design for a fountain pen. Leonardo twirled the pen around his finger as Ricardo and Graziano both looked at him with confusion,
“And how’s that supposed to help?”
“Francesca, what do you think of it?”
“This? Umm…”
Taking the fountain pen from Leonardo, Francesca unhesitatingly took off its cap.
But not because she wanted to write something. She held the top of the pen and stem of the pen and then rotated it to take it apart, and then looked inside the stem part to find something.
“Ah, there really was something inside this.”
“………….”
Hearing Francesca say that so lightly, Ricardo could only look at her speechlessly. Francesca paid it no heed and peeked inside it with her one eye like she was looking down a telescope.
“Is that, a piece of paper rolled up in a cylinder? Will it come out if I tap it a couple times?”
“Wha…….how did you instantly know that that was there?”
“?”
Hearing Ricardo’s question, Francesca could only tilt her head in confusion.
“Well, if I get handed a fountain pen like this, wouldn’t anyone doubt that surely there’s a secret hidden inside it or something?”
“……………”
“Eh!? Am I wrong!?”
While she was shocked from the silence that came with her answer, Leonardo simply laughed heartily.
“Hahah you really are the best Francesca! As expected of the Calvino’s sole daughter. You are well versed with all the secret tricks and trades of the underworld.”
“No, I don’t think even I would have ever guessed that out of nowhere. The young miss just sometimes seems to have all this abundant source of info that she got from god knows where.”
(GULP…….!!)
Hearing Graziano’s very reasonable doubts, Francesca quickly averted her eyes.
Even if they were villains who were the five great families of the underworld, on the surface they acted as high ranking nobles that worked for the King. Because they are both a necessary evil, as well possess a just cause from the king himself, they weren’t as underhanded as you’d imagine them to be and didn’t really try to be that secretive with things.
(But unlike this world where everyone can live so boldly and out in the open, in my past life, we really were an existence that belonged in the shadows…….!)
Even in the group that Francesca’s grandfather led, even if stuff like drugs were banned, there was still a lot of other things they needed to hide from the police.
Francesca tried to keep her distance from these things so she didn’t know what exactly they hid inside such pens but, she knew that this was indeed a place to hide things still.
“B-But! With the way the cap is sealed as well, look, surely you’d think that it’s a great place to hide things right!?”
“………..”
“Whaaa, Leonardo!!”
Unable to gain the agreement from both Ricardo and Graziano, she turned to Leonardo for help.
Leonardo continued to snicker, as he took the pen back from Francesca and pulled out the piece of paper from inside it.
“Well, it’s not like it’s some super secret and secure way to hide things though. And besides, since it’s a little trick from someone also in the same forest as us, I figured I should show it to you because it probably won’t hurt them too much either.”
Leonardo spread the piece of paper, to show the small words written on it to everyone here.
“this is………”
Seeing the first few words written, Francesca instantly frowned.
[year 1652, May, a certain day. There was an assassination request from Savini family to the Ranieri family. The traces of trying to conceal that fact still remain.]
What was written there were was in regards to something that had happened 90 years in the past.
[A certain day, year 1654, September. In the house of a certain Earl household, who was a competitor to the Savini family in the trading business, a fire broke out of nowhere. All family members died in the fire. It was doubted that the Savinis were involved.]
[year 1655, February, a certain day. Another merchant that traded in the same goods as the Savini family dies from his ship mysteriously sinking while at the sea.]
[year 1655, March, a certain day. The ship that had suddenly sunk with the merchant actually belonged to the Savinis. Due to the sinking, the Savinis will receive a huge compensation as insurance as well.]
And so on, a bunch of unpleasant incidents had been written down one by one.
They seemed to all be in chronological order, and even after the part Francesca read, these info details continued on detailing events that happened for dozens and dozens of years.
“[a certain day, year 1729, February. The eldest son of the Savini family and the heir apparent, dies. Potentially an assassination through poison], it says. It’s kind of crazy.”
“Leonardo, this is………”
“The history of the household to which our dear marquis, who we are tasked to protect, belongs to. A history of consecutive crimes committed again and again and then concealed and erased from the records.”
Reattaching the fountain pen again, Leonardo began to twirl it around his finger once again.
“Even while being a member of the surface world, the Savini family has continued to act very much like an underworld family, and had been conducting business……….seems kinda natural that they’d get targeted by an assassin sooner or later, no?”
“……….”
And then Leonardo’s moon coloured eyes turned to look straight at Graziano.